


watch the world go by

by stubborn_jerk



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Filipino Peter Nureyev, Fluff, Gen, Late Night Conversations, M/M, Meta, Netflix and Chill, Not Beta Read, Other, POV Alternating, Past Character Death, Past Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:48:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25771618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stubborn_jerk/pseuds/stubborn_jerk
Summary: Juno has the bright idea of watching his favorite kid's show with Nureyev. He has a couple things to say about it and Nureyev has a lot of things to say about it.
Relationships: Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel
Comments: 14
Kudos: 104





	watch the world go by

**Author's Note:**

> this is for [stes](http://twitter.com/homeostesis) who, when asked what i should write about with my brahma is the philippines au, said "andromeda as the voltes v cartoon they banned on brahma."
> 
> she was absolutely correct. though i do apologize for how juno-centric this became. maybe i need to listen to more episodes w him. kinda wanna do more in his pov that Isn't on my hadestown au wip.

Nureyev liked to read.

Alright, okay, partner of the year award goes to Juno Steel for noticing that his boyfriend liked to read.

It’s just… complicated. Like a lot of things were with Nureyev.

Here’s an example:

Nureyev was one of the most observant people he knew. He noticed a lot of things Juno generally wouldn’t, like inscriptions and hieroglyphs, or what impact an action would have on an event where Juno was a fish out of water, or what destroying something could entail for the future of a culture that wasn’t theirs. All that junk.

In time, Juno found out that it was less about knowing what to observe in any given situation, and more about knowing what to read up on. To Nureyev, keeping a completely open mind to ideas was difficult if he hadn’t prepped with research. Juno had been at the tail end of this once or twice when they first met: this insatiable curiosity that would lead to Nureyev being unable to keep his mouth shut.

It wasn’t much different from being a private eye, just with different things to read up on. Having all the knowledge in a job was all it took to turn the tide from certain death to freedom with your limbs and parts relatively attached. Instead of hard evidence, Nureyev dealt in things like customs, traditions, character profiles, organizational charts, private emails, maps, blueprints.

Y’know, the works. Whatever gets you on the quickest route to the cleanest possible escape.

And the thing about Nureyev was that he tended to get a little too… immersed when he was reading. Bit ironic, really. Observation required vigilance and when Nureyev started reading, it was like he left his body behind while his brain flew off elsewhere.

It wasn’t a bad thing, in Juno’s opinion.

In fact, it was kind of cute, a funny little conundrum.

If he was reading something (a book, maybe, or research), he will never take his eyes or concentration off of it till he finished. No matter what you did. Hand him literally any cup and he’ll drink it. Bring something to his mouth and he’ll open his mouth. Juno once stacked a bunch of stuff on top of his head and when he told Nureyev to stay still, he did.

But he will never look away until he finishes what he’s reading.

The thing was: Juno didn’t think he’d be the exact same guy when it came to cartoons.

For the past ten or so minutes, Rita has explained the original Andromeda series to him while an episode played on the monitor. And sure, he hummed and nodded, but Nureyev’s attention was focused solely on the monitor.

And well, call Juno a bit of a bully, but he wasn’t going to stop Rita to see how far Nureyev would go before shushing her with how invested he seemed to be with what was going on.

Andromeda was being unchained by her brother Perseus.

She was crying, asking Perseus what would happen if Queen Cassiopeia found out about his betrayal. Apart from that, how were they going to keep Poseidon’s sea monster from destroying their kingdom?

Perseus gathered her chains and handed them to her. “ _I’ll deal with it. Head to Ammon and ask for his advice. Trust me, alright? We’ll get through this._ ”

Andromeda bit down her sobs as she wept at the loss that she was sure was coming, pulling her brother in for a hug.

This, Juno remembered, was going to set off Poseidon’s trials. It would lead to her never coming home to Polaris ever again, never to rule over her kingdom for as long as she lived.

Granted, he forgot the poetic narrative of Andromeda’s original run. This scene was moving him. Him! Juno Steel, forty and counting, getting teary-eyed about a kid’s show stolen from his mother.

A lot of its original messages about defeating facets of oppression were drowned out by Northstar’s more marketable reboots and remakes, once they made it big. This Andromeda had a better written story than the later ones, even if he _did_ love them as a kid. So, give Juno some slack.

Now he kind of wanted to find out how its original run ended. Or, well, _remember_ it.

Nureyev grabbed the comms and turned up the volume. As Andromeda snuck around Polaris’ halls, Rita simmered down as the scene’s tension grew.

And with that, an idea popped into Juno’s head.

* * *

Juno was late for their usual talks.

Now, Nureyev didn’t think of himself as a fretting type. Instead of pacing or restlessly waiting, he just tapped around his reader until he was bored enough to push himself up from his bed.

He should go get himself a glass of water.

Yes, that seemed like a good idea.

And if Juno’s room was on the way to the kitchen, well then that was just convenient, wasn’t it?

Sound reasoning justified, Nureyev slid out of his room and padded his way down the hall.

He knocked thrice on Juno’s door. Faced without a response, he punched the code in to open Juno’s door.

It was cluttered, as always. His clothes for the day were strewn over the end of his bed, having not made it to the hamper. But it was empty.

A quick check on the logs on the door panel told Nureyev that his lady hadn’t been in his room in a while.

Odd.

He continued his trek to the kitchen for his glass of water.

Jet was there, steeping a pot of tea while he tapped around on his comms.

“Have you seen Juno?” Nureyev asked, in lieu of a greeting.

Jet afforded him the same lack of one, saying, “He asked me how to open his comms files then went to the living room.”

After downing a glass of water, Nureyev went to check the living room.

When the door slid open, the first thing he noted was the muttered cursing. It was a little less noticeable over the hum of the ship’s core from a room away but it was no less audible.

The second thing was just how bright the overhead lights were.

Atmospheric lights were the default setting in every room in the ship. Buddy said it was to help with their sleep cycles, ignoring the fact that most of her crew had trouble sleeping, including herself.

Juno had the tendency to fiddle with the overhead lights when he was bogged down on any kind of research. Usually, he’d have Rita with him to bring them back to default.

Finally, he noticed the lady he was looking for.

Juno was in his usual sleep attire: whatever seemed comfortable at the time. Tonight, ‘comfortable’ was a worn looking shirt and basketball shorts with mismatching socks. His back was to Nureyev, facing sideways on the couch as he bent over an equally bright comms screen, fiddling around with it.

From his distance, he could see Juno was moving the volume up and down repeatedly on the holo-screen. Every time the prompt faded, Juno would press something and it would pop up again, causing a displeased noise.

“Need help, dear?”

Juno jolted, almost dropping the comms. “Nur- _Ransom!_ Geez, we should get a bell on you or something.”

“Or something,” Nureyev said, amused. He padded closer to the couch. “What are you doing?”

Juno huffed, pouty. It didn’t seem like he was going to answer.

Nureyev leaned down to kiss the pout off his lips, thrilling in the novelty of being able to, knowing that anyone could walk in on them.

Not-so-subtly, he grabbed the comms from Juno’s loosened grip while he was down there and stood back up to see what it was.

Chainmail Warrior Andromeda. The original series run.

Nureyev sighed, teasing. “Watching cartoons at this time of night while you kept your lover waiting?”

Juno rolled his eye. That pout was back.

Nureyev finally identified it for the flustered tic it actually was when Juno said, “I was going to bring it with me, in case you wanted to, but I wanted to figure out how to work the damn thing first.”

Nureyev nodded, barely containing the fond exasperation in his next exhale.

Juno lightly hit his stomach, the only thing he could reach apart from Nureyev’s arms. “Don’t laugh at me, jerk, I wanted it to be nice for you!”

“Juno, dear, just come to my room and I’ll help you if you need it,” Nureyev settled, knowing his lady would always err on the side of pettiness when flustered.

Juno glared up at him for a moment before standing and saying, “Fine.”

Juno took his hand as they went, still a bit pouty but no less affectionate for it. Nureyev walked a step closer to him, warmth seeping into each point of contact.

They padded back to his room, taking care not to disturb the silence of the halls despite the muffled sounds of a stream from Rita’s room.

He broke the silence once they reached his room.

“Why…”

Nureyev couldn’t find the proper words. Sometimes, it just got hard to communicate in Solar English. He instead gestured with Juno’s comms as the door slid shut behind them, letting the action fill in the void he couldn’t.

Juno shrugged, pulling them down onto Nureyev’s bed. “You seemed to like it earlier. I don’t see why not.”

Nureyev felt there was more to that than Juno was letting on. It was more gut feeling than anything, really. When it came to Juno, his gut was rarely wrong.

“Did you watch the first episode or did you just walk in to Rita watching whatever?” Juno asked as Nureyev made them comfortable on the bed.

Juno offered his arm up when he was done, which Nureyev took gratefully. He slid up beside him, cheek to Juno’s chest. He smelled of soap, lotion, and the detergent Jet used for all of their laundry. A word to name it popped into Nureyev’s head but he deemed not to think it.

He said, “No, I just walked in the middle of the episode. It was very high stakes.”

Juno nodded. “Then we got called in for a family meeting.”

Nureyev rolled his eyes at the moniker. “Yes. Shame, too. It was getting good.”

“True. So, wanna watch it from the start?”

Nureyev paused to think about it.

It wasn’t odd, of course, that Juno would suggest something instead of having a talk like they usually did. It was good to space out, have fun from time to time. It just seemed a bit abrupt.

“Is this the only reason we’re watching? You seem familiar with it, and usually stream watching is for you and Rita.”

Juno took a deep breath. Nureyev tried very hard not to close his eyes. Doubly so when Juno brought his arm up to run fingers through his hair. “It’s… personal. Might ruin the mood, to be honest.”

Nureyev hummed. “ _After_ we watch, then,” he suggested. It seemed like a better idea than just ignoring his gut. “I’ll give you my thoughts, you give me yours.”

“Deal.”

* * *

Their stopping point was when Juno’s arm started going numb from Nureyev laying on it.

“How d’you like it so far?” he asked, trying not to move too much while his blood flowed back into the right veins and arteries. “Well, I know you like sitting through something till it’s done so… But I wanna see your spin on it.”

Nureyev took a deep breath as he considered it. “It’s… a bit underwhelming. It had a lot of hype where I came from.”

“You guys got to watch Andromeda on Brahma?” Juno asked, a bit incredulous. “Weren’t you a bit too busy with, y’know, other stuff?”

Nureyev didn’t answer. Juno looked over at him.

His face was deceptively blank until he looked away and Juno saw the tension on his jaw. “So you looked me up.”

He blinked.

“What? No. I told you that, didn’t I?”

“Then how do you know I was from Brahma? And how do you know I wouldn’t have time for some… some Solar children’s stream?”

Juno sat upright from his slouch, peering down at Nureyev. “I…”

It was then that he realized that for all the work they put into open communication, Juno skipped over a very big part of their history: what happened before he left. The revelation made him feel like pins and needles were running up from his arm to his entire body.

Nureyev took his glasses off and ran a hand over his face. “You know, I wouldn't have minded if you hadn’t just sprung it on me, Juno, really. I mean, I looked _you_ up afterwards and somehow we’re here, despite it all, right?”

He did?

No, Juno thought. That was different. He had to keep this from spiraling out somehow.

“Nureyev—”

Nureyev pulled himself up to sitting, putting his glasses back on. “And you know, I would have done worse than arrest her, Juno, I would have—”

“Nureyev. Stop.”

Nureyev stopped.

Juno took a deep breath. Then, another. “Remember the night you escaped Miasma?”

“Yes, I found myself remembering most of the times you screamed in agony in front of me, Juno,” Nureyev snapped. “It’s hard not to.”

Juno nodded, blinking a little too rapidly for someone trying to reign in his emotions. “Alright, can you quit that for a second? Just a second to let me get all of this out?”

Nureyev ducked his head, probably aiming for chastised but falling short of sullen. “Sorry.”

Juno ignored him.

“You asked me to look into your head because Miasma told me to already, remember?” Juno asked. He gripped the sheets with the hand that had been nothing but pins and needles earlier, trying to ground himself somehow.

Nureyev solved this by taking that hand into his lap and playing with his fingernails. “Yes.”

“I saw a memory… of you with Mag. Before you tried to take down the Guardian Angel System.”

Nureyev didn’t look up at that.

“Do you want me to keep going?”

He nodded.

Juno sighed. “You were conning this lady... Rossignol, I think. To steal the codes to get to the control room. You got the codes, snuck your way into the control room with only a couple of stun blasts— Actually, I don’t remember if they were on stun.”

“They weren’t,” Nureyev whispered. He glanced at Juno, a quick thing that dropped just as fast. “Did you see when…”

Juno turned his hand around in Nureyev’s palms and offered it. “Yeah, I saw what happened with Mag.”

Nureyev took it, then clasped another hand under it, trapping Juno’s. “I apologize for making you see that,” he said.

“Don’t. I’m sorry for not telling you I saw it,” Juno countered.

Nureyev met his eye then. “You weren’t in total control of the growth yet. And I used you as a distraction.”

“And it worked,” Juno said.

The way Nureyev was challenging his trust in light of this revelation about the Martian growth was… a bit annoying, if Juno were to be honest.

They’ve been through a lot since then, and Juno wasn’t the paragon of Good that Nureyev made him seem. Like this little nugget of fun he’d forgotten to share with Nureyev, there were probably things he hadn’t told Nureyev yet that could pretty much disprove that image.

But there’d be no point in it.

At least, not right now.

He gripped tighter on Nureyev’s hand. “We’re here, aren’t we?”

Nureyev nodded mutely at that, seemingly at a loss for words.

“So, you were saying about Andromeda being hyped up on Brahma?”

Nureyev snorted, then laughed, pulling Juno in, then down on the bed with him. His comms were lost in the sheets between them somewhere, but Juno didn’t care.

He laid down face-to-face with Nureyev, tangling their legs together. He could see his eyes again, which was a relief. There was nothing there but fondness.

“You have to work on your segues, dear,” Nureyev pointed out, sounding a bit drained.

“It’s late, lecture me about my conversation skills when I’m in my business hours.”

Nureyev huffed. “You’re cute.”

“Shut up.”

Nureyev hummed, thinking as his eyes dropped to the pillow beneath them.

God, he was beautiful. Even in just a camisole and boy shorts, he was the most beautiful man Juno had ever laid his eye on.

Alright, no more gushing about your partner, Juno thought to himself. Time to think about how to phrase this.

And here he thought this was going to be a lighthearted night, watching cartoons in bed with his boyfriend and maybe making out after. How the hell do you even begin to tell the person you love that you have a very complicated relationship with an iconic Northstar cartoon character?

“A few years before they put up the System,” Nureyev started, pulling him out of his thoughts, “The government started filtering and censoring local and foreign media. Of course, I only know this from what I was told. I wasn’t really alive when they started doing it. And I was ten when…”

Nureyev paused, licking at his lips. Juno was very not-distracted by that.

“I was ten when Mag told me that the symbols splashed across the walls of the slums and in signs and warning posters was from a Solar children’s show. It didn’t make much sense to me then. With context, it does, but it’s not… _revolutionary_ , per se.”

Juno nodded. “This was a few years before the War ended?”

“A full decade, yes.”

“Why Andromeda, though?”

Nureyev snorted. “Well, she’s going against the wishes of a monarch, proving herself to an actual god, and saving random villages from captivity and authoritarian rule every episode.”

“Oh. Right. Not the kind of symbol you’d want an uprising to get their hands on.”

Nureyev shrugged one shoulder. “More or less. Mag let me join the resistance for a few years while he taught me. It was somewhere to stay and get an education.”

Juno nodded slowly while he processed this.

“What?” Nureyev asked.

“Nothing.”

“No, tell me.”

“Just,” Juno breathed out a laugh. “I’m an ex-cop dating an ex-revolutionary.”

Nureyev rolled his eyes.

“No, see, this is why I didn’t wanna tell you.”

Nureyev pushed himself up and straddled Juno. He caged Juno between his arms and lowered himself to nuzzle Juno's neck. He could hear the smile in Nureyev’s voice when he said, “Such star-crossed lovers we could have been, hm?”

Juno snickered. “I hate you.”

He pushed lightly at Nureyev’s shoulder. “Alright, settle your skinny ass down, it’s my turn to share.”

Nureyev dropped back down on his side, dramatically grunting as if pained. “So callous, so cruel. Just what an ex-cop would do.”

Juno laughed. “Shut up!”

“Could you imagine the streams they could make about us?” Nureyev smiled as he probably imagined it.

Juno couldn’t help but roll his eye at the idea. “Okay, Cecil Kanagawa. With what money?”

“Oh, Juno, darling. Dear. Sweetheart. Honey.”

“ _Nureyev_.”

“You really _are_ a caveman.”

Juno let out a mock offended gasp. “I told Rita not to tell you about that!”

Nureyev shrugged.

Juno shook his head. He was going to have a word with Rita in the morning. Mostly that only _Juno_ was allowed to embarrass Juno in front of his boyfriend.

“Anyway. Your turn.” Nureyev said.

And with three simple words, Juno deflated.

Right.

Just rip the bandaid off, a voice in his head said. It sounded suspiciously like Benten.

“Andromeda was my mom’s idea,” Juno said. “She was working for this small entertainment company when Benten and I were really young. I… She was going to be pitching it so she wouldn’t get let off because of budget constraints but then someone stole her idea. Literally, broke into our house and everything.”

Nureyev blinked. “This was not the direction I thought it was going.”

Juno snorted, gaze drifting over Nureyev’s shoulder. “Yeah. Anyway, I kinda let the guy in. And she blamed me for it for years.”

“How young were you when that happened?”

“Four, five? I dunno. I’m surprised I can even recall. Anyway, Andromeda was a hit when it aired for a couple months. I _loved_ it. Y’know, till we got broke and the War got worse at the end of it. Mom started getting angrier and angrier whenever reboots and remakes and movie streams of the initial show got any traction. And she… Yeah, you know. I only actually found out about all of this recently.”

“How recent?”

Juno thought about it. “A month before I left Hyperion? Around the time Jet fixed my eye.”

Nureyev hummed, nodding. Then, his face twisted in confusion. “Wait, just to confirm this. She _blamed_ you for—”

Juno shook his head. “Don’t. Don’t worry about it.”

Nureyev let out an affronted noise, pushing himself up on his arms to loom over Juno. “I _will_ worry about it, Juno. You were a child! You couldn’t have known better.”

Juno nodded through it, willing his face to stay as unamused as he could.

It failed though, considering the even more affronted look on Nureyev’s face. “What?”

“’You’re very handsome when you’re like this.’” He raised his hand to cup Nureyev’s cheek. “’Morally outraged.’”

Nureyev rolled his eyes, grabbed a pillow, and hit him, gently, in the face. “You’re in _furiating_ , you know that?”

Juno laughed. “Now _that’s_ a ten-cred word if I ever heard one. Never heard it when I’m in bed with someone pretty though. And excuse me, have you _met_ you?”

Nureyev pulled the pillow away from his face. Juno grinned up at him.

“Come here,” Juno said.

Nureyev leaned down, sighing into his mouth.

Not a lot of watching was done for the rest of that night.

**Author's Note:**

> [click here for the lore](https://interaksyon.philstar.com/breaking-news/2018/07/06/130118/role-voltes-v-martial-law-philippines-anime/)
> 
>   
> (EDIT, 24 JAN 2021: i dunno who did it but someone took down the link i had for the lore, which is personally a vital part of why this fic came to existence. i'm updating it with another online article but know. that the loss of the very public wikipedia article is alarming, considering the philippine police force's recent use of the voltes v theme song for "morning exercise."
> 
> other than that, im updating some links here and there but not much else.)  
> 
> 
> NOTE:  
> \- yes i did pull a troy 2004 on the andromeda tale. if you want to know (you probably dont) my pitch of the original andromeda run was more accurate to the myth but less accurate to its culture.  
> \- she's the aethiopian crown princess of polaris who is chained to a rock to be sacrificed to poseidon's son ketus because of her mother's hubris. perseus, her brother, saves her.  
> \- to save polaris and the greater kingdoms by the shore, she goes to poseidon and is required to do trial by trial that lead her further and further away from polaris.  
> \- the season ends with her being unable to find her way back to polaris but instead ruling over whatever population of argos and tyrins respects her enough for freeing them from their bonds while she was still undergoing her trials
> 
> i might continue this specific series if i ever get to drafting the initial thing that spurned this entire thread of filipino!nureyev and brahma as the philipines. Big maybe. we'll see.
> 
> if you want to follow me on any platform, [here's your directory](https://stubbornjerk.carrd.co)
> 
> as always, comments are appreciated!


End file.
